Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to discuss further this important issue. I acknowledge the contributions of Deputies on the Bill, as proposed by Deputy Stanley. This issue generates much interest and debate among all relevant stakeholders, interest groups and the wider community. It is certainly worthy of discussion here. That is why we are to have consultation over the coming months.

Deputy Stanley is correct that it will take about six months to go through the whole process. The initial phase will involve the strategic environmental assessment, SES. That will start tomorrow. We will get it moving then. The process is now under way. It is important that we have it and that we discuss the draft guidelines.

While I note the merits of some provisions of the Bill, as mentioned, the Government has already committed to addressing most of the issues raised in the Bill as part of the ongoing review of the 2006 wind energy guidelines. We believe this is the appropriate approach. I recognise the Deputy’s Bill was produced in good faith but that is our view. Statutory planning guidelines are the most appropriate way to deal with these issues rather than primary legislation, as proposed. In this regard, ministerial planning guidelines issued under section 28 of the planning Act provide sufficient flexibility in the application of the advisory nature of the guidelines at local level while also ensuring consistency of approach, having regard to relevant national Government policy, particularly energy policy. In the proposed revisions of the guidelines, as contained in a preferred draft approach published in June of this year, the Government aims to strike an appropriate balance between addressing the concerns of local communities regarding wind farms, with which concerns I am very familiar as I represent areas that are greatly affected and in respect of which I have had ongoing discussions, and the need to invest in indigenous renewable energy projects for the purpose of enhancing our economic and environmental sustainability while also assisting in the achievement of our EU climate and energy targets. People want to achieve the targets because they represent the right thing to do. Deputy Eamon Ryan addressed this. Irish people believe in this but it is a question of how we manage and balance our energy development and do what is right in the right places. That is what the guidelines will attempt to achieve.

A particular focus of the preferred draft approach is to underpin the principle of early and active engagement by developers of wind farms with local communities, combined with the provision of community benefit measures in locations where wind farms are proposed. Even when I was a counsellor, I always encouraged engagement with the community from day one with regard to any proposal or development. One should get the balance right, obtain support and try to bring the community with one when one can. It is possible in most cases because most people are reasonable. There are fears, however, so there is a duty to do all that can be done to allay those fears.

The development of projects is carried out quite well in other countries. We have done it well ourselves in many cases but it is a question of enhancement and streamlining our approach to ensure communities gain and do not suffer. That is the most important part.

The preferred draft approach also proposes stringent noise controls consistent with WHO standards, the establishment of a robust noise-monitoring regime for wind farms, the elimination of shadow flicker through inbuilt automated control mechanisms on wind farms, and the introduction of revised setback distances from residential dwellings to protect visual amenity. These are all possible because of technology changes. What people would have called for years ago is now possible. There is no reason to be having this debate on shadow flicker. We can deal with it and put it to bed. That is what we should do.

All these proposals will be subject to a strategic environmental assessment, as required by EU legislation, including a public consultation process, before they are finalised. That process will be kicked off tomorrow. I hope we will be at the implementation stage in November after the tenders are dealt with in the month of October. All the provisions in the Deputy's Bill are being addressed as part of other policy initiatives, such as the renewable electricity policy and development framework, being developed by the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten, and his Department. It will incorporate policy in line with EU requirements in regard to potential future energy exports, thereby setting updated national policy in this regard. Also to be considered is the renewable electricity supply scheme, RESS, which is to be finalised in the coming months. It is aimed at fostering and strengthening concepts of community participation and ownership in renewable electricity projects while further supporting the community benefit concept, as proposed in a preferred draft approach.

There is a further aspect of Deputy Stanley’s Bill that I would like to address but which I omitted in my intervention earlier this evening. It relates to section 7, pertaining to transitional provisions that would require existing wind turbines already operating and well established in local communities to comply with the ten-times turbine height setback distance proposals in section 6 within a 12-month period after the enactment of the Bill. These provisions would entail existing wind turbines either having to be reduced in height in their current locations or moved to other locations in order to comply with the setback requirement. The proposal in the Bill in regard to existing wind turbines is not feasible from either a legal or practical perspective. I acknowledge the Deputy's intentions but there are State obligations to be adhered to. We must be careful that we manage these.

As I have outlined, many of the provisions of the Bill have already been addressed in the context of the ongoing review of the 2006 guidelines and in policy initiatives being progressed by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment and its Minister, Deputy Denis Naughten. I accept that this has dragged on for a long number of years. Deputy Jan O'Sullivan referred to her time in my Department. This has been going on too long. The agreement reached in June of this year with the two Departments and two Ministers on the preferred approach is a welcome step and an important milestone. Tomorrow will comprise a part of that, in addition to what will occur in the months ahead. It is time to end this conversation, make decisions and offer people some certainty with regard to plans and proposals. It is important that we do so.

I am confident that the review of the guidelines and the other Government policy initiatives mentioned will collectively provide for a clearer, balanced and more robust system of appropriate controls for wind energy development. Accordingly, I wish to confirm that the Government is opposed the Bill at this stage because of the proposals we are involved with. I hope that is understood by most people.

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